Reuters reports that draft FY 2011 budget documents show the Pentagon targeting at least 7 programs for cancellation. Nothing is final yet, and the Pentagon will not comment, but here’s the rundown.

Two of those programs are familiar. One is the F-35’s alternate-engine F-136 sub-program. The other is the C-17. The USAF has been trying to cancel production of this heavy transport plane for years, but lack of faith in the Pentagon’s mobility requirements studies, and frequent testimony that airlift into theater is a bottleneck, have led Congress to add funds to the final military budget year after year. Those efforts have had an export spinoff as well, as open production lines have allowed new orders from Australia (4), Britain (3 more), Canada (4), NATO (3), Qatar (2), and The UAE (6), with India expressing interest of its own (10) in late 2009. FY 2011 seems set to give the Department of Defense another attempt to end the program, which is currently set to go out of production at the end of FY 2012.

In the early weeks of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the US military satellite communications capacity was overwhelmed by the demand from US troops for satellite bandwidth to transmit voice and data communication. In response, the US military dramatically increased its use of commercial satellite capacity to meet the explosion of demand.

A study by the Satellite Industry Association found that 80% of all US military satellite communication during the Iraq invasion was carried on commercial satellites. Then-US assistant secretary of defense for networks and information integration, John P. Stenbit, estimated that the US military purchased between $200 million and $300 million worth of commercial satellite services during the first year of the war.

Recognizing the military’s reliance on commercial satellites, the US Navy undertook an effort, called the Commercial Broadband Satellite Program (CBSP), to develop and deploy satellite communication terminals specifically designed to increase the Navy’s commercial satellite communications capability…

CACI International received an $81 million task order from the US Army to support the consolidation of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) resources to the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

The company’s support includes the planning/preparation, disassembly, transport, and synchronized reconstitution of components involving information technology, systems engineering, and network automation…

US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan rely on the timely delivery of supplies and equipment to carry out their missions. One of the primary movers of heavy military equipment to that area of the world is the large medium-speed roll-on/ roll-off ship (LMSR) operated by the US Navy’s Military Sealift Command.

These ships need to head out at a moment’s notice. They require operation and maintenance support to keep them in top shape, ready to deliver supplies in theater when needed. To provide this support, the Navy awards large contracts to private companies…

When you think of military healthcare, you might picture MASH doctors performing surgery on wounded soldiers. Or you might picture a US soldier injured by an IED being rehabilitated in a hospital state-side.

You probably don’t think of computers, networks and Web sites. But modern healthcare, whether military or civilian, depends on information technology for all of the advanced medical technology to work together seamlessly.

To procure military IT, the US Department of Defense developed a contract vehicle called the Defense Medical Information Systems/Systems Integration, Design, Development, Operations and Maintenance Services (D/SIDDOMS 3) contract. Just rolls off the tongue, don’t it.

While hardly Shakespeare, the contract vehicle enables US military services and the US Department of Veterans Affairs to buy medical IT equipment and services through task orders from a group of eager contractors operating under an $8 billion contract ceiling…

US military commanders in the field want information and they want it now. The more information they can gather on enemy positions and movement, and the faster they can get it, the more chance of success they will have.

But there are so many information sources available to the commander, it is hard to sort through it all. That’s where the Distributed Ground System-Army (DCGS-A) comes in. The DCGS-A integrates intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) data within a single system to streamline the US Army’s ability to process and disseminate the data to commanders in the field.

Recently, Textron unit Overwatch received a contract, worth up to $48.5 million, to develop and maintain the DCGS-A Application Framework (DAF), the DAF Software Development Kit (SDK), and major system components such as the Tactical Entity Database, messaging/ interoperability, and visualization/ analysis tools…

Close air support remains an especially live issue on the modern battlefield, and it is once again affecting procurement discussions in Britain. “Field Report: British British GR7 Harrier IIs in Afghanistan” addressed the positive benefits of Britain’s Harrier force in theater. A 2006 controversy over their performance in the wake of a soldier’s email deserves equal attention, and has broader implications. In September 2006, newspaper reports described a leaked email from a British Major serving in Afghanistan, who created a tempest when he said that:

“Twice I have had Harriers in support when c/s on the ground have been in heavy contact, on one occasion trying to break clean. A female harrier pilot ‘couldn’t identify the target’, fired 2 phosphorous rockets that just missed our own compound so that we thought they were incoming RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), and then strafed our perimeter missing the enemy by 200 metres.”

Nor is that all. He reportedly added that “the US air force had been fantastic”, and “I would take an A-10 over Eurofighter any day.” The UK MoD responded at the time. Now, it seems that the controversy described back in 2006 is influencing procurement recommendations from the very top…

British sailors on wooden warships used to sing a sea-shanty called the “Fire Down Below.” The song – sung while sailors were raising the anchor, pumping out the bilge, or hauling ropes – was about fighting a fire onboard a ship.

Ever since the era of wooden sailing ships, fires onboard ships have been a major concern for the world’s navies. In the era of steel ships, the fire danger might not be as ever-present. But it remains, especially when repair and overhaul work is being done.

That type of work requires the use of welders. And where welders work, there is a risk of fires starting. To monitor the welders’ work during ship overhauls, the US Navy uses fire watchers…

UAVs have been a critical resource for US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. They perform many functions, including intelligence gathering, surveillance of enemy positions, and even attack capabilities.

GlobalSecurity.org lists over 60 different models of UAVs. One of the most useful UAVs with attack capabilities has been the MQ-9 Reaper. It has the same surveillance capabilities of the popular MQ-1 Predator, but it also can carry GPS-guided JDAM family bombs, Paveway laser-guided bombs, Sidewinder missiles for air-air self defense, Hellfire anti-armor missiles, and laser-guided Hydra rockets.

To find targets, track them, estimate their range, and ensure the targets are taken out, the MQ-9 needs a sensor-based targeting system. That system is the MTS-B [PDF] Multi-Spectral Targeting System manufactured by Raytheon, which recently received a $27.5 million order from the USAF to supply 17 MTS-B systems.